


The Pursuit of Research

by Murderbirb



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Child Murder, EvilMonomonAU, Heavy Angst, Horror, Lurien is straight up not having a good time, PK is a depressed mess, Please Be careful, Quirrel is Monomon’s son, This is extremely dark, Unethical Experimentation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-17 09:07:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29964072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Murderbirb/pseuds/Murderbirb
Summary: “These Vessels, they are so different from any other bug of this kingdom. It is our duty as researchers to study them, learn what makes them tick, learn every tiny oddity in them.”“Wouldn’t you agree, Quirrel?”A Drabble collection focused on a timeline where one character is blinded by her ambitions and passions and takes a dark turn.
Relationships: Lurien the Watcher & Monomon the Teacher (Hollow Knight), Lurien the Watcher & Soul Master | Soul Tyrant, Monomon the Teacher & Quirrel (Hollow Knight)
Comments: 66
Kudos: 41





	1. The Tests

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please be careful. This fic is extremely dark.

Quirrel was sorting documents in the Archive, with a worried expression on his face. Madam Monomon had been gone for 12 hours straight! When she left to pick up some important resources, she said it wouldn’t take too long, yet she had been gone for longer than ever. Did something happen to her? Was she hurt? Did she die?! Oh gods, what if something happened to her and she died? What would he do, oh gods what would he do?

His wallowing was interrupted when he heard a clinking noise approaching. He turns to see Monomon, who was pushing a large container, with a sheet over it, in a cart. He quickly ran over to her and sputtered out a question. “Madam! Why were you gone for so long? I was worried!”

Monomon gave out a small giggle as she patted Quirrel on his head. “Oh Quirrel, there was no reason to worry. I just had some problems with getting my resources.” 

Quirrel sighed in relief before looking at the large tank Monomon had in the cart. “Um Madam? If you would, could you explain what exactly is in this container?”

A nod came from Monomon as she placed a tentacle on the sheet and pulled it off the container, revealing what was hidden. In the container was 20 or so Vessels piled on top of each other. Some were asleep, some were looking around them, and some were trying to get the the top off the tube so that they could escape. Quirrel let out a gasp as he stared at the Vessels. “Madam, ho-how did you find them?”

Monomon responded in a calm tone. “It wasn’t too hard. There is an abandoned Nosk den in Deepnest that leads to a small hole in the Abyss that I used to get in. I just took all the vessels I could find and left.”

Despite getting an answer, Quirrel was still confused. “But, aren’t the vessels supposed to try to escape the abyss so the King can find the Hollow one of them?” A shiver was sent down his spine when saying the plan. It will never NOT horrify him.

Another calm response came out of Monomon. “Don’t worry. I highly doubt that any of these vessels are hollow and if I do find a hollow vessel, I will bring it to the King immediately. These vessels would’ve been left to die at the bottom of the pit, so it’s far smarter to take them and repurpose them for a better use.”

Quirrel was already confused by what she said as he turned around, but she seemed to notice and began to speak again. “These Vessels, they are so different from any other bug of this kingdom. It is our duty as researchers to study them, learn what makes them tick, learn every tiny oddity in them.”

“Wouldn’t you agree, Quirrel?”

————————————————————————

Test 13: How do vessels react to acid?

Subject: V-47

Summary: Vessel was procedurally submerged into acid, more and more each time, to test how it’s shell reacts to it.

Trail 1: Vessel’s foot was dipped into acid for 30 seconds. After the period of time, it put it’s hands onto it’s foot, likely in pain.

Trial 2: Vessel’s leg was dipped into acid for 30 seconds. After the period of time, the vessel held it’s leg close to it’s chest. Tears formed at their eyes. Burn marks from the acid were also noticed.

Trial 3: Vessel was dipped in acid from the waist down for 30 seconds. During the test, the Vessel began to cry and frantically tried to get it’s legs out of the acid. Many burn marks were found on it’s legs after the test.

Trial 4: Vessel was fully submerged in acid for 30 seconds. The Vessel quickly began crying as it kicked and waved it’s arms and legs around, as if it was trying to swim out. It’s body was covered in burn marks afterward.

Conclusion: Vessels shells are more resistant to acid in all scenarios compared to most bugs.

————————————————————————

Test 24: How resistant are Vessel shells to blunt force?

Subject: V-51, the same subject used in Test 19.

Summary: Blunt objects were used against the vessels shell to see how much force it can take before extreme damage is done.

Trial 1: Weighted Ball. The item was dropped from a certain height and, upon impact, a large bruise was formed on the vessel’s shell, yet it didn’t break the shell.

Trial 2: Metal bat. V-51 was hit on the chest repeatedly and, after 30 seconds of attacks, cracks were found across it’s shell, but no large holes.

Trial 3: Hammer. V-51 was repeatedly struck with a hammer and, after only about 15 seconds, the hammer broke through it’s shell and caused it to faint.

Conclusion: Vessel’s have sturdy and powerful shells that can do well at protecting from some attacks. Their shells would make for great light armor.

Side note: V-51 tried to escape multiple time throughout the experiment. Next test with it, make sure that it’s restrictions are in top shape.

————————————————————————

Test 38: What does it take to make a Vessel attack it’s sibling?

Subjects V-95A and V-95B, since they both hatched from the same egg.

Summary: V-95A was fitted with a shock collar. V-95B was chained to the wall. V-95A would be-

(The rest of the summary was scribbled over with black marker, as if someone wanted to make sure you wouldn’t see it. The same is with the trial and conclusion, except for a part that said “-5A was found dea-“ A side note was also found.)

Side note: V-95B was given the nickname “Hollow”, since V-95A destroyed it’s shade, leaving it’s shell completely lifeless and empty.

————————————————————————

Test 32: How far can a vessel’s arms stretch?

Subject: V-82

Summary: V-82 had it’s arms stretched periodically to find out if the shell restricts it’s shade form from stretching out.

Trial 1: One Inch. After this small amount of stretching, the vessel was in obvious discomfort, but no extreme pain could be seen on it.

Trial 2: Three inches. The Vessel was attempting to squirm it’s arms out of it’s chains, but stopped after it stopped stretching. Tears were noticed on it’s face. The Vessel was obvious in much more pain afterward, but the arms were still holding strong.

Trial 3: 6 inches. The Vessel was in obvious extreme pain. It kept trying to escape it’s chains. Cracks were noticed across the arms, yet they stayed in place, likely due to the shade trying to keep the shell together.

Trial 4: One foot. V-82’s arms tore off mid-stretch. The entirety of the left arm came off and the forearm of the right arm as well. 

Conclusion: Vessel arms can be extended a decent amount before breaking, with the main thing holding them in place being the shade.

————————————————————————

Test 28: How do vessels react to strangers?

Subjects:  
Trial 1 and 3: V-26, V-92, V-51, V-75, and V-21  
Trial 2: V-41, V-64, V-30, V-57, and V-11

Volunteers:  
Trial 1: Richard Johnson  
Trial 2: Charlie (Last name unknown)  
Trial 3: Unknown

Summary: One Volunteer was put into a room with vessels for 10 minutes. Vessels were observed to see how they reacted.

Trial 1: Random Vessels and Richard. Upon entering the room, most Vessels attempted to back away from the stranger. Richard attempted calm them down, but it didn’t work. After two minutes, V-92 slowly approached him, while V-51 attempted to stop it. When V-92 reached the him, he placed a hand on it’s head in an attempt to get it to trust him. After this, most vessels went forward and interacted with the stranger, except for V-51. This went on for the rest of the test.

Trial 2: Injured and Starving vessels, Charlie. Upon entering the room, the Vessels all focused on the stranger. Most did nothing for about 30 seconds, until V-11 lunged at Charlie and began to attack him. The other vessels quickly joined in too, attacking the volunteer and absorbing his soul. After about 2 minutes, the vessels backed off from the body, which was a bloody pulp. Bones were broken and large chunks of his flesh were missing.

Trial 3: Random Vessels and Infected Volunteer. When the Infected volunteer entered, most of the vessels ran away from it, except for V-51. Instead of running, it ran and attacked the infected bug. A sickening crack came out as it repeatedly beat the bug’s face until their mask broke. The body was quickly removed from the room.

Conclusion: Vessels are naturally curious of strangers, unless the strangers pose a large threat or if killing the stranger is a great advantage to them.

————————————————————————

Test 49: Can vessels be given a voice?

Subject: V-103

Volunteers:  
Franklin Parston  
Beeble AKA: “Soul Twister”

Summary: Multiple trials were done where surgery was done to give V-103 a voice. Two Volunteers were chosen to have their voice box removed for the test. (Beeble fought back and died in the process. Franklin died from blood loss.)

Trial 1: Surgical implant into the windpipe. The box was implanted to where it would be on a normal bug. After being carefully added, V-103 attempted to speak, but no sounds could be made. The box was removed and thrown out.

Trial 2: Surgically added device with the voice box. A small device was built to put the voice box in to that it would adapt to the Vessel. After being implanted into the wind pipe of the vessel, V-103 managed to speak out a word. “Hurt.” It had the voice of a child.

Conclusion: Vessels can be given a voice, but it must be done through highly-mechanical means.

————————————————————————

Test 52: Can Vessels be blinded?

Subject: V-62

Summary: High-power light bulbs were used in close proximity to the Vessel’s eyes for 1 hour to see if light could blind them.

Trial 1: Low-power bulbs. Though the vessel looked uncomfortable, it seemed quite interested in the light bulbs in front of them.

Trial 2: Medium-power bulbs. V-62 was obviously uncomfortable and tried to look away from the light, but the locks around it’s head kept it in place. A vision test afterward proved that their eyesight was still quite strong.

Trial 3: High-power bulb. V-62 repeatedly tried to squirm out of it’s restraints, but it’s eyes were kept focused on the light. A vision test showed that it’s eyesight was harmed by the light.

Trial 4: Maximum-power bulbs. V-62 was constantly struggling, until about 45 minutes in. A vision test afterward showed that the Vessel had lost it’s sight, and another test the next week proved that it was permanent.

Conclusion: Vessels can indeed be blinded by light, despite void’s nature to consume light that constants it.

————————————————————————

Test 78: What is a vessel’s morality?

Subjects: V-54, V-86, and V-97

Volunteers:  
William Parston  
Amelia Meílath  
[REDACTED]

Summary: Each volunteer is stabbed and left in a room before a vessel is let in. The vessel is observed to see what it does about the stranger.

Trial 1: V-54 looked confused when it saw William injured. It didn’t take long for it to walk over and look at the wound. It seemed a bit worried and, shortly after, tore off a bit of it’s cloak and wrapped it around his wound.

Trial 2: V-86 seemed far less trusting of Amelia. It slowly moved forward to her, but before she could try to speak to it, it lunged at her and tore into her flesh. She cried out in pain as it tore into her and ripped off her wings. V-86 had to quickly be contained again. All that was left of Amelia was a bloody corpse and her shredded butterfly wings.

Trial 3: V-97, unlike the other two, was instantly worried when it saw [REDACTED] injured. It quickly ran over to him and looked at his wound, before focusing it’s soul and putting it over the wound, hoping it would heal him. After a few minutes, the wound on [REDACTED] had healed and he thanked V-97.

Conclusion: Vessels vary in how they act toward strangers who are in need of help. More testing may be required.

————————————————————————

Test 36: How long can Vessels survive without water?

Subjects: V-71, V-19, V-66, V-89, and V-25

Summary: Vessels were sealed in rooms with no food or water. Any possible entry for anything is blocked.

Attempt 1: Had to be restarted, as V-19 died from lack of oxygen. It was replaced with V-39.

Attempt 2: V-89 was the first to die of thirst, lasting only 11 days. V-71 and V-66 died the next day, and V-39 died the day after. V-25 lived the longest, lasting 15 days without water.

Conclusion: Vessels can survive for unnaturally long amounts of of time without water, and the time lasted varies quite a bit.

————————————————————————

Test 65: Can pictures stress a vessel out?

Subject: V-103

Summary: V-103 is shown a variety of photos and has it’s heart rate and blood pressure monitored to measure it’s stress.

Trial 1: A photo of an infected TikTik. As expected, V-103 showed barely any signs of stress.

Trial 2: A photo of a few primal aspids. V-103 showed slightly more stress from this photo, but it was most likely due to the visible infection bubble.

Trial 3: A photo of the Pale King. V-103 had a few signs of stress appear, but mostly focused on the picture and said “Papa?” It reached forwards, likely trying to grab the picture, which was taken away before the next trial.

Trial 4: A drawing of what is said to be the Old Light. V-103 quickly reeled back after seeing the picture, and was obviously extremely stressed from the picture, as it tried to escape it’s confinements.

Trial 5: A video recording of test 58. V-103 was quickly stressed when it saw it’s sibling strapped in a chair with a device attached to it’s head. When the machine turned on and a glowing white substance moved through the pipes, V-103 began to panic as it screamed “No! No!” The vessel in the video began to twitch, and V-103 reached it’s hand out, as if it could save it’s sibling. After a little bit, the vessel in the video died as it’s chest burst open and soul leaked out of it. V-103 cried and clenched their fists, before being transported out of the room.

Conclusion: Vessels get highly stressed when seeing things related to the old light, and even more stressed when they see their siblings injured.

Side note: Immediately after being brought back to containment, V-103 hugged the closest vessel they could find.


	2. The Grim Discovery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The King goes to speak to Monomon about some problems and worries he has been having, but stumbles upon a horrifying discovery.

The King walked through the archives in search of Monomon. He had many questions to ask her. More specifically, he had one important question to ask her; the whereabouts of her assistant. During his last 4 meetings with the dreamers, Quirrel had failed to show up and every time he asked Monomon about this, she dodged the question or told him not to worry. After all of this, he finally decided that he was done with how she was acting, and now he chose to go to her and demand an answer. He wanted answers to all his questions. Why did he find her near the abyss a few weeks ago? Why did Beeble, the Soul Twister, vanish shortly after joining the archives? WHAT HAPPENED TO QUIRREL?

So far, though, he hasn’t been able to find Monomon and when he asked any of the scholars, they all said that she must be studying somewhere private or she is just collecting a few resources. This, however, was not enough to deter the King from his goal. He scoured the Archives, hoping that he would find Monomon somewhere, and if he couldn’t, he hoped to find Quirrel.

After an hour of searching, the King couldn’t find Monomon anywhere. He checked the Archive twice, and was now standing in Monomon’s study. He decided that he would do one last search around the study before he left, and he only could find what he saw last time. Books, chess boards, a map of the Kingdom, but nothing of high interest. He was about to leave when he accidentally dragged a bit of the rug with his foot. As he turned around to put it back, he noticed something odd. A large crack that was peeking out from below a bookshelf. After moving the shelf, he saw what he missed, a cellar door.

The King quickly opened it and rushed down the stairs in it. Across the walls were tubes with acid running through them, and at the bottom was a hall, full of doors. Each and every one of the doors was locked, and there was no way to see in, so he walked by most of them without focusing, until he heard a noise. A child crying.

He turned his head to find where the sound was coming from, listening closely and following the voice until he reached a door. The door was similar to the others, but the King knew that he had to get through it. He focused his soul and, shortly after, fired a soul blast that forced the door down, but not forced enough to go flying. He walked in and was met with a sight that shook him to his core.

Vessels.

The room was filled with Vessels, all with injuries covering their bodies. While most were laying on the floor, lifeless and broken, he noticed 4 vessels who were standing up or sitting down, all chained to the wall or ceiling. The first was missing their left arm and half of their right. The second was covered in burn marks and, judging by the shapes and coloration, they were most likely acid burns. The third was hanging upside down, bruises and scars littered their body and a large crack ran down their mask. Finally, the fourth vessel had fewer visible injuries, but they waved their head wildly, as if searching for a person that was right in front of them. The King slowly approached them, getting reactions out of them. The burned vessel seemed to panic as they attempted to squirm back, despite being against a wall. The armless seemed to analyze the King, as if trying to tell if he was a threat. The beaten vessel was hard to read, since they were hung upside down and couldn’t move, but he could practically FEEL anger radiating off of them. The fourth vessel, though, still gave a no reaction other than frantic head-waving. The King approached them and examined them, trying to find out why they were acting like that. When he placed a hand on their shoulder, they jumped before waving their arms around slightly, until their hand came in contact with the King’s face, at which the vessel moved their hands across his face, as if trying to feel the shape of it. It then snapped to the King’s thoughts. Was this vessel blind? Had something blinded this vessel? His thoughts, though, were interrupted when he heard a voice behind him.

“Papa?”

He turned, and was met with the face of another vessel, chained to a wall, who was staring at him with tear-filled eyes. “Papa?” They asked again. The King was frozen and highly confused. How was this vessel able to speak? Vessels weren’t supposed to be able to speak at all, yet this one was able to talk to him. Shortly after, though, the Vessel began reaching their arms out, tears began to roll down their face, and they cried out “Papa! Papa!” in a desperate voice. The King quickly walked over to them and put his arm on their shoulder. The Vessel, however, didn’t seem content with that, as they wrapped as much of their arms as they could around the King, pulling him forward into a hug, as they cried into his robe. “Papa...scared...me scared....” the vessel cried out. The King hugged the vessel back as large feelings of guilt began to hit him. During his experiments, he told himself that the vessels were nothing more than dangers to Hallownest, harbingers of doom that held the soul of the Shade Lord in each, but now he sees for himself what the vessels truly are; Children. Scared children who want their father to comfort them. 

After letting the Vessel cry for a short amount of time, the King pulled himself slightly away from the vessel before speaking. “Child, tell me. What are you doing down here? What brought you here?”

The Vessel clung to their father’s hand as they began to speak. “Scary lady trap us....hurt siblings, hurt me...hurt friend....” They began to tear up again. Meanwhile, the King went back into his thoughts as he focused on what they said. Though he hated the idea, he knew that the “scary lady” must be Monomon. There is no other way, since all these signs point to her being the person who locked these vessels up and, from what it looked like, did unspeakable things to them. The King knew he would have to stop Monomon soon, but he had one goal first; to free these vessels. They have already suffered far too much by his hands, they needed to be saved.

One by one, the King broke the chains keeping the Vessels in place. When the voiced vessel was freed, they quickly grabbed onto the King’s hand and refused to let go. The Armless and Burned vessels both focused on what the King was doing, while the Beaten vessel helped their Blind sibling. After all were freed, the King pointed out the door and spoke. “I need you all to leave and find the hatch out. Wait until I return before leaving. I’m going to look for any other surviving vessels.” All the Vessels nodded in response, while the beaten vessel glared at the King. The voiced vessel, however, didn’t let go of the King’s arm. To get them off, the King simply pulled them off and place them next to the beaten vessel, who quickly took hold of their sibling’s hand and walked away with them.

Sadly, the King was unable to find any other living vessels. There must’ve been 150 vessels in this room, and they were all laying dead on the floor. One had a split-open chest, while another had stab marks covering their shell. The most interesting, though, was a pair of vessels with similarly shaped horns. They both had two large, curved horns, but, while one had nubs at the end of their horns, the other had spikes along their horns. More interestingly, though, was that the nub-horned vessel’s dead body was hugging their sibling’s corpse, while also having a large slash across their chest. He also noticed that the stabbed vessel had a shock collar on.

After his search, the King left to find the vessels, who, just as he told them to, were all waiting by the cellar door. The King gave out a sigh of relief before speaking again. “Ok, we all need to be VEERY quiet. The “scary lady” doesn’t know that I came down here, so we will have to sneak out of the Archives, understand?” All the vessels nodded in response, as the King pushed open the hatch and walked out, motioning for the vessels to follow him. They proceeded to sneak out of Monomon’s study and through a few rooms, stealthing past some scholars as well, since the King didn’t know if they were in on what Monomon was doing, and he didn’t plan on finding out. He was feeling a tad hopeful, since he knew he was getting close to the exit, until he heard a light humming from around a corner. He turned over to look at the individual and his hopes shattered. 

It was Monomon. 

She was sorting a few documents along the wall and she didn’t seem to notice the King when he slightly poked around the corner. Unfortunately, she did hear the small peep of fear he released when he saw her. She turned to see his head peaked from behind the corner and spoke. “Ah, hello, my liege! My scholars informed me that you were searching for me! Well, I am happy to talk about what you needed to speak to me about.” 

The Vessels behind the vessel began to shake, which only further proved to the King that Monomon was behind what happened to them. He slowly stepped forward before speaking to her. “Well, Monomon, I came here to speak about the whereabouts of your assistant Quirrel, but I recently remembered something very important I had to do back at the Palace. So, you should just go back to your work as I fix my little problem.” 

Monomon, however, wasn’t that easy to convince. She grew a confused look as she spoke. “It is very unlike you to forget about something that you say is “very important”, my liege. Well, I guess you have forgotten about important meetings, though.” It seemed that she was slowly taking her focus off the the King until she noticed something. A small horn poking out from a corner. She slowly approached the horn, until the Beaten Vessel jumped out from behind the corner and lunged at her, repeatedly biting her and attacking her face. Monomon released a yelp of surprise and small screams every time the vessel bit her, but eventually she grabbed them, yelling out “YOU INSOLENT PEST!” before throwing them on the ground and electrocuting them. The vessel wildly twitched as the electricity surged through them. 

“Monomon, stop this at once!” The King yelled out. The words made it seem like an order, but his tone made it obvious it was much more of a plead. Monomon looked over at the King, her gaze switching to a look of pure fury. “You know, don’t you? I won’t let you ruin my research, you pathetic king!” She yelled as she charged towards him, her tentacles already sparking with electricity. The King quickly summoned his Soul Nails and slashed at her. His focus was on the beaten vessel, who was attempting to stand back up, but collapsed each time. The King, unfortunately couldn’t focus as much on them as he wished, as he now was battling Monomon, who was whipping and jabbing at him with her tentacles, aiming to kill. The King quickly saw an opportunity as he slid out of the way of one of her attacks, and he dashed in and chopped her appendage clean off. Monomon yelled out in pain after that attack as she moved away from the King. Instead of continuing his attack, though, the King ran over to the beaten vessel and helped them get back up before speaking to them. “I need you to go get your siblings and RUN. I can deal with Monomon, so GO.” The vessel kept a glare on him, but nodded anyway and ran to where their siblings were.

The King looked back to where Monomon was, only to notice that she was missing. His eyes darted everywhere, trying to spot her so she wouldn’t get the upper hand, until two tendrils wrapped around him and sent and electric charge through his form. He yelled out in agony as Monomon laughed. “You will not get in my way anymore, you fool. I know better than all of you. My research will lead to a greater world, and if you cannot live in it, then so be it!” Another surge of electricity went through his body, causing the King to release another scream of pain. Each time Monomon electrocuted him, the pain was worse than before. He believed that he was going to die, until he felt the surges stop. While he was initially happy, he was filled with fear when he noticed why. Monomon’s gaze switched from him onto the vessels, who were hoisting each other up platforms, trying to reach the exit. “Oh, you horrible creatures aren’t leaving!” Monomon dropped the King and rushed over to the vessels. 

“No! Nonononono!” The King thought. “You can’t let this happen! Do something!” He attempted to move his body, but the pain was far too much. Monomon was so close to getting to the vessels. With the last bit of strength the King could muster, he managed to pull himself up and he saw Monomon reach the vessels before she attacked them, starting with the blind one. The King felt his vision blurring, before.....

The next moments were a blur. He had no idea what was happening. He heard yells and screams of pain. He could feel flesh being torn, and blood covering his hands. The scents overwhelmed him as he smelled blood being spilled. Finally, he heard a loud *CRACK* before he could refocus his vision. In front of him was the vessels, staring at the floor beneath him. He looked down and saw it. The horribly torn corpse of Monomon. Her body was cut open and split apart. Right next to it was her mask, which was broken in half. He also saw his blood-covered hands. D-did he just kill her? That easily? 

He didn’t have time for questioning himself, as he looked back to the vessels, seeing the blind one curled up on the ground, obviously in pain. He picked the vessel up before looking at the others. “We have to go now. Follow me.” He began to run, and the vessels followed. They quickly left the archives and before long, they were on a stag heading toward the palace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From here on out, I will be having the chapters switch between the time of the tests and the aftermath, so more Evil Monomon can be expected.
> 
> Also, just so you know, these vessels have names!  
> Armless: Spirit  
> Burned: Iris  
> Beaten: Hope  
> Blind: Kasondre  
> Voiced: Quill


	3. A Discovery in the Archive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lurien leads an investigation of the Archives and discovers devastating secrets.

“I need you eight to search the main library and the studies nearby it.” Lurien ordered, “We have to make sure that there are no other secrets hidden here.” The sentries quickly began to make their way to the library, as Lurien and the other sentries continued through the Archives. Technically, a sentry chief should be leading this investigation, but Lurien had been adamant with the King to allow him to take charge, which the King accepted. Lurien felt that he HAD to do it, he had to learn about the actions of his best friend.

His former best friend, to be accurate.

The entirety of the Archives had to be searched, and Lurien would be sure to check every crack. The fact that Monomon could hide her tracks so well means that she would likely hide her secrets just as well. It would likely take days to find all of the secrets. Some secrets were a bit easier to find, though, such as the now open test chambers, the key on Monomon’s corpse, and the......pile of bodies found in a blocked off room.

(Lurien stood over the corpse of Beeble and wept to himself. His friend was dead. He wished that he could’ve stopped him from joining the archives, that he could’ve discovered Monomon’s dark secret earlier. Now, one of his only friends was horrifically murdered.)

He slowly began to make his way to Monomon’s study. Once he reached the room, he pointed to the cellar door and said, “I need to rest of you to go into the test chambers and search every room. Report anything important you find, especially if it is a living void being.” When the King spoke of the investigation of the archives before, Lurien was worried about the sentries seeing the vessels. The King, to deal with this, informed all of the sentries about the dead void beings in the archives and that Monomon had found them and experimented upon them, and that touching them is far too dangerous. Though the King felt it was disrespectful to refer to the vessels as nothing more than void beings, he felt that it would be far safer for the sentries to not know the truth. He couldn’t have another fiasco like the Lord Fool’s death happen again.

The sentries quickly took the stairs to the chambers, as Lurien walked over to the desk at the side of the room. He pulled Monomon’s key out of his pocket, before inserting it into the keyhole on the bottom drawer. Just as he expected, the drawer opened with a *click*, and he looked inside.

There was one large folder that had “Test Documents” plastered in bold letters on it. He pulled it out, but quickly noticed something at the bottom of the drawer. A blueprint. Lurien took it out and looked over it. It was a strange design, with many tubes strewn around the main body, and one large tube at the end. At the center was a small tube containing a flower, and many of the tubes connected to the centerpiece. He was about to put the blueprint away when he noticed who one of the designers was. “Beeble, the Soul Twister.” Lurien felt sad, angry, but most of all, disappointed. Why did Beeble have to join the archives and make this contraption, which he didn’t doubt for a second was used for horrors beyond his comprehension.

He quickly moved his eyes over to files on the tests. He decided that he should just read over them to (hopefully) get his mind off of Beeble’s death.

(30 minutes later)

Lurien was flipping through the files, a look if horror displayed on his face. Every test seemed to be worse than the last. They were barely even tests, more like glorified torture and execution. He did notice some oddities, more specifically, the missing tests. Tests 15, 29, 38, 49, 63, and 75 were missing, with nothing in the place where they should be. He wondered why, but decided to continue looking through the pages. He flipped to the next page. “Test 78: What is a vessel’s morality?” He looked down at the information, then saw something that made his heart drop. 

“Amelia Meílath.”

Anger quickly began to build up in him. “No. Nonono. Please no.” He thought as he looked down the file, reading the trials. 

He threw the documents on the ground, his anger reaching a peak. How fucking dare her! She couldn’t stop at torturing children without remorse, she couldn’t stop at killing his friend. She just HAD to kill his sister as well. Lurien slammed his fist onto the table, before clasping it with his other hand, obviously in pain. He slumped over, his back against the desk, as he began to cry. “This is all my fault” he said to himself, “I should’ve found out earlier. How could I have been this incompetent?” He hugged his legs closer to his chest.

“I’m a failure...”

Lurien sat there for who knows how long, weeping, mourning, until he heard someone approaching. He wiped the tears of his mask before standing back up and looking over to the cellar, seeing a sentry walking up the stairs. “Watcher, sir, we have discovered some important findings in the chambers!” 

“Tell me, please.” Lurien said. He was desperate to have something else to focus on.

“Well, first of all, many of the rooms we found below seemed to be torture chambers. Second, we discovered a room that looks into a smaller chamber, but the chamber couldn’t be entered, as the only entrance was blocked with a seal. There were also multiple splotches of what we assume is void in the chamber. Lastly, we found a room that had multiple people locked up in it. We have already gotten them all out.” 

Lurien felt both surprised and slightly happy. At least he could save a few of Monomon’s other victims. Shortly after, he saw the once-captives walking up the stairs and into the study. There were a variety of different bugs. Beetles, Hivelings, ants. There was even a moth. But one single bug caught his eye. A pillbug, with a pale white face, a bandanna, and scars littering his body, some were dripping with a dark liquid.

Quirrel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you are all happy that Quirrel is alive, because I am going to rain angst upon you all.
> 
> Also, if you are surprised by the “Lurien has a sister” thing, then read my fic “Torn Wings”. It will make much more sense.


End file.
